The sweeping gambling indictment that has engulfed the NBA, bringing two separate scandals together, could soon be streamlined.
Via NBCNews.com, court records show that multiple defendants are discussing plea deals. The case includes three NBA figures: Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, and ex-NBA player and coach Damon Jones.
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The documents do not specify which of the 31 total defendants are discussing a potential plea bargain. During a hearing earlier this month, Jones’s lawyer said that he and the government may be engaging in plea negotiations.
All defendants are due in court next week for a status conference. The cases involves allegations regarding the misuse of inside information for betting purposes, and the existence of a poker games that was rigged with various high-tech mechanisms.
It’s unclear whether guilty pleas will result in more charges. Usually in such cases, the prosecution tries to parlay guilty pleas into getting people higher in the operation. Here, the objective could be to go lower — and to ensnare recognizable names.
